<p>Yet again, the social media giant Facebook has been caught with making plans to disrespect its users&#8217; privacy. ;</p>
<p>According to a recent <em>Wall Street Journa</em>l report, Facebook has asked U.S. banks to share detailed data on their customers in exchange for participating in a new service Facebook is planning to roll out to users. ;</p>
<p>Facebook is aiming to expand its Messenger platform to include more buying and selling of goods and services. ;</p>
<p>So far, the social network has approached Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and U.S. Bancorp &#8220;to discuss potential offerings it could host for bank customers on Facebook Messenger, said people familiar with the matter.&#8221; ;</p>
<p>Facebook Messenger has about 1.3 billion monthly active users. PayPal partner with Facebook last year and allows users to send money through messenger. ;</p>
<p>The social network is considering implementing a feature that shows users their checking account balances, along with offering fraud alerts through Messenger.</p>
<p>According to the <em>WSJ</em> report, &#8220;Facebook asked banks for information about where its users are shopping with their debit and credit cards outside of purchases they make using Facebook Messenger.&#8221;</p>
<p>As banks struggle to compete with payment sharing apps like Venmo, they are actively looking to reach more customers digitally. ;</p>
<p>Facebook, on the other hand, is trying to recover from the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the firm accessed up to 87 million users&#8217; data from Facebook without their permission. ;</p>
<p>This has ignited a fiery debate among lawmakers and has influenced the passing of regulations to better protect users&#8217; internet privacy. ;</p>
<p>In order to save face, Facebook and other tech companies are cooperating with lawmakers to create new privacy laws. ;</p>
<p>Facebook said that ; it is &#8220;working with policymakers to craft privacy legislation that protects consumers, ensures people are in control of their information and promotes responsible innovation.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The Commerce Department has been holding meetings on how to handle the privacy issue. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The goal of this outreach is to formulate a set of principles that enjoy broad support, with the objective of setting high level goals for protecting privacy while promoting prosperity,&rdquo; said a senior administration official. ;</p>
<p>But after the recent privacy scandal, banks are hesitant to partner with Facebook.</p>
<p>The social media giant claims that the data given by banks won&#8217;t be used for ad-targeting and would not be shared with third-parties. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t use purchase data from banks or credit card companies for ads,&rdquo; said Elisabeth Diana, a Facebook spokeswoman. &ldquo;We also don&rsquo;t have special relationships, partnerships, or contracts with banks or credit card companies to use their customers&rsquo; purchase data for ads.&rdquo;</p>
<p>However, JPMorgan spokeswoman Trish Wexler said that the company is not &#8220;sharing our customers&rsquo; off-platform transaction data with these platforms, and have had to say no to some things as a result.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Author&#8217;s note:</strong> I highly doubt that Facebook wouldn&#8217;t use banking data to target users with relevant ads. These companies, especially Facebook, have no respect for our privacy or personal data. They just see users and their data as a way to make more ad money. ;</p>